Symbiosis
by Cerveza
Summary: ObitoRin, AU. He approaches her at a New Year's party for a chance to rekindle the sort-of history between them. She doesn't give the response he is hoping for. But heck yeah, he would still take her home.


**A/N: First time writing about these two… I think I might have found my new ship. :3  
Part of the summary is adopted from Arctic Monkey's **_**Still Take You Home.**_

* * *

The only reason Obito agreed to come to this party was because he heard that Rin was going to be there.

He normally disliked social gathering of more than three people, especially when there was loud, noisy music involved. He didn't feel comfortable dressing up fancy just so he'd look presentable enough in front of strangers he didn't even care about. From a handful of parties he'd been all his life, he usually just came for a drink or two, had short meaningless chitchat with those who seemed familiar to him, and left early. Mostly alone.

But then his friends found out he got nothing to do on New Year's Eve and somehow it became a matter of national importance for them. One of them threw a party on his apartment, and another revealed that she'd invited Rin and she'd confirmed her attendance.

Obito showered for an hour that day, and decided to pick the same outfit he'd worn the first time they met. It just felt right.

He found Rin in the far corner of the room, leaning against the wall and looking as stunning as ever. She was alone. Obito felt that fate was siding with him that moment. He strode over to her, ignoring the maddening pace of his heartbeat.

"Hi, Rin," he began.

Rin looked up. "Hi."

He took a position at the wall beside her. "It's been a year."

"Yeah."

"So… How you're doing?"

"I'm sorry, who are you again?"

At this rate, Obito couldn't tell if she was a) drunk, b) joking, or c) totally serious. As he tried to assess the situation, he noticed that she was holding a freshly opened can of non-alcoholic strawberry soda. So it was safe to say that no, she wasn't drunk. Then he glanced at her expressions. Her brows were creased in the middle, her mouth upturned, her eyes focused on one spot. It was the face of pure confusion, nothing remotely indicating jest.

Then it could only mean one thing.

She didn't remember him.  
Whatsoever.

Obito could feel his brain cells shifted sluggishly inside his head searching for a possible explanation. Was she involved in some sort of an accident that took part of her memory away? Did she secretly have a twin sister and this was the one he was talking to at the moment? The so-called reasoning was getting more and more ridiculous as it progressed.

"I'm… Obito," was all he could manage.

"Ah. Of course. Obito," she nodded and took a sip from her drink. Her countenance now turned entirely unfathomable to Obito's added bewilderment.

"You… you do remember me, right?"

Rin put away her soda can while looking at everywhere but him. "My friends just came. I better go see them."

With just that, she left Obito in the corner with his mouth hanging open like dead goldfish out of its bowl.

* * *

Early December last year, Obito was at the department store searching for something for his mother's birthday. He was initially going for a scarf, then gloves, then realized he had zero knowledge in anything relating to that woman's fashion sense. In the end he decided to get her a toaster. Utility above everything else, he thought, since the old one broke not a week before.

He was shuffling through aisles of what seemed to be identical kitchen utensils that only varied in price when he bumped into Kakashi, his friend from high school. They hadn't seen each other since graduation. Amidst the catching-up Kakashi introduced him to one of the most beautiful creatures Obito had ever laid eyes on, who was at that moment clinging onto Kakashi's arm as if she was too scared that if she let go she'd disappear. Rin, his girlfriend.

They went to a coffee shop to talk more after that. He tried not to pay too much attention on how her eyes crinkled when she laughed or how pleasant the laughter sounded. He tried not to wish that her delicate fingers were wrapped around his own hands instead of Kakashi's. When the evening came, they said their farewell.

Obito dismissed the thought of his old friend's girlfriend for the next few days. It was nothing more than a silly crush.

Until she came crying to him.

Obito was mystified when he came home from work that day to see Rin hugging her knees on his front porch. She stood up and hugged him and just like that broke down on his shoulder. He took her in, made her some tea, and listened to her stories about how she and Kakashi just had a huge fight that resulted with them breaking up. He consoled her all night, and she ended up sleeping on his bed while he was wide awake on the couch until six in the morning, thinking _what the hell, God, are you kidding me?_

Then they began to meet each other more often. A week later, they began sleeping together.

Obito couldn't be sure whether he was the rebound guy or not, but a part of him didn't care if it were true. They usually did it in his place, because Rin would always leave early without saying anything. Again, curiously, Obito didn't care. All that matter to him was that every time he held her close and he breathed the nice smell of her hair, the warmth of her body complemented his in ways he could never understand.

He woke up in the morning of the day before the New Year to see that she was already gone as usual. But now, there was a piece of paper left on the table next to his bed. A note that contained no more than three simple phrases:

_Thank you.  
I'm sorry.  
Goodbye._

—_Rin _

She wasn't answering any of his calls or texts. Later Obito learned from a mutual friend of theirs that Rin had moved some place out of town 'for a fresh start'. She had changed her number. Obito stopped trying to look for her, but his mind refused to quit thinking about her.

* * *

And now here he was, standing dumbfounded, scrambling to make sense for everything that just happened.

He watched her laughing among a circle of friends he didn't recognize. She was truly enjoying herself, it seemed, all the more reason for him not to go over there and demand more answers.

So he just stayed rooted on the spot, chugging his fifth bottle of beer for the night.

When the clock struck twelve Rin was no longer anywhere to be found. Obito sighed. It was time to come home and bury history. For good.

Outside, in search for a taxi, the cold wind jabbed through his bones accompanied the throbbing dull ache of his heart. The deafening noises of paper horns and still-ongoing blasts of fireworks besieged his surrounding. The more he tried to ignore it, the more rampant it became.

After some minutes standing under a bleak fluorescent streetlight, he was finally able to get a cab. As his hand reached out to touch the door handle, a voice stopped him.

"Wait."

He turned to see Rin standing behind him with hands in her coat pockets.

"Rin," his tone was merely acknowledging, too tired to be startled.

"I have a very selective memory," she said.

Obito exhaled. "Rin, what does it—"

"Just let me finish," Rin cut in. "When I moved away a year ago, I was serious about starting over. That means forgetting anything that would remind me of… him. You were one of it. My selective memory turned out to be an advantage."

Obito remained silent.

Rin lowered her head as if she was speaking to her shoes. "When you talked to me again tonight, it came back. All of it. It wasn't a good feeling, to say the least. I realized I wasn't treating you right back then not because I was hurt, but because I was an asshole. No, _am _an asshole_. _I guess what I'm trying to say is, I'm not that girl you think I am, and I can never be her. Not then, not now, not ever."

Her eyes now met his.

"I leave. I forget. That's what I do, Obito."

Obito held his gaze at her beautiful face for a moment longer when he heard the driver's annoyed voice. "Hey pal, are you getting in or not?"

"In a second," Obito answered, and opened the taxi door. He held it ajar and turned to her.

"Are you coming?" he asked.

She hesitated for an instant. Then a smirk formed at the corner of her mouth before she gave a tiny nod and stepped into the car. Obito followed suit, closing and locking the car door.

Hell yeah, he would still take her home. Any given day of the year.

**end.**

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**Reviews will make my day, oh yes they will.**


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